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Showing items tagged with "out of office message" - 13 found.

To check or not to check ….email on holiday…that IS the question

Will you or won’t you?  Should you or shouldn’t you … check your emails while you are on leave?  These questions remain hot topics judging by recent press coverage.  Some feel their bosses and today’s 24/7 way of working means it is required of you as a professional.  Others say you can’t really switch off properly and get the benefits of your break if you are constantly on line.

Many of you will be just about to go away or just coming back.  So I thought you might like to take a look at the coverage and be reminded of some useful things you can do to minimise email intruding on your vacation and making your return a misery.

Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times, not surprisingly, dislikes those Out of Office messages saying you are on leave and feels that staying connected is the right image for those who want to survive in today’s full on business world.

Email stress free vacation

My view? – well I believe in disconnecting if possible but being realistic.  I would say restrict yourself to logging on once a day but don’t let yourself get dragged back into work detail.

Delegate responsibilities and do some work to cut your inbox before you go as summarised in an article by Darren Slade business editor of the Daily Echo.

With respect to Out of Office message, I agree with Lucy about banal ones.  However, setting a professional Out of Office message can help manage sender’s expectations and reduce cyber crime risks.

Whether or not you disconnect or stay connected you will undoubtedly return to a bulging inbox and Timothy Stenovec on Huffington.Com provides five very useful top tips to take back control of your inbox.

1. Ruthlessly unsubscribe
2. Send fewer emails
3. Empty your inbox!
4. Eliminate distractions
5. Own your inbox (Don’t let it own you)

Click here for the full article by Tim Stenovec.

For more tips and hints on how to deal with email both on leave and on your return see my recent blog on email security over the vacation and the seven step plan for dealing with the vacation back log.

But this is not just about individuals making the decision to log on or not during the holiday season.  Companies need to give clear guidlines about what they expect.  Just as you should provide guidelines on what is acceptable email etiquette/style for your business, you should also include what is expected from employees on leave and especially in relation to their Out of Office message.

This is an area where we can and would be delighted to provide advice and guidance on email best practice to ensure you and your most valuable asset (your employees) have stress and email free vacations and minimise the cyber crime risks associated with Out of Office messages.

Have a great holiday.

Tags: email best practice, email free vacation, email on vacation, email overload, email security, out of office message

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How to survive those back-to-work emails

Top tips on how to beat the email blues when you return to work – Bournemouth Echo 06 August 2013.

Tags: email best practice, email overload, email security, out of office message

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Email security over the vacation period

Email cyber crime attacks effect one in two UK citizens and on average £247 is stolen from bank accounts per successful attack.  Moreover, the Government’s Intelligence Services estimate that UK businesses are subjected to roughly 1,000 cyber attacks every hour.  Email is often the low hanging fruit for the cyber criminal, rather like leaving the car keys near the front door so that the criminal can fish them out.  How well do you and your business manage email security?  When was the last time you updated your email best practice policy and provided any email management training?

There are two types of email security breaches, those we cause by carelessly leaking confidential information and those where others attack us.  This blog deals with the former.  Common cause of leaking confidential information by email (and not just during vacation time) are through:

• forwarding information to others who should not see it;
  

  Email security

• sloppy Out of Office messages;
• sending the email to the wrong recipient;
• delegating access to another person but not properly briefing them on how to handle our inbox.

Here are five top tips to help you manage the risk of a breach of email security and hence open the back door to a cyber crime attack especially during the vacation period.

1. Set a simple and safe Out of Office message – click here for for more help.
2. When giving access to someone else leave adequate time to brief them on what to expect that needs handling and how to manage the rest.
3. If you are expecting confidential information aks the sender to put ‘confidential’ in the subject and set up a rule to send it to a separate folder.
4. Avoid sending work emails to a social/home email account.
5. Always re-read emails you are forwarding on to check the whole chain for any information which the new recipient should not see.

If possible try to take an email free vacation.  We all need down time.  Dealing with sensitive emails over the holiday in a relaxed state of mind is often when breaches of security happen as we are at our most vulnerable.  If you feel you cannot swich off it might be because you are suffering from email addiction.  Click here to check if you are suffering email addiction.

Tags: email best practice, email cyber crime, email free vacation, email management, email overload, email security, out of office message

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